Knitting designer Jean Guirguis of Jean Adel is famous for her whimsical animal-themed designs for children and a recent move to Hempfield Township has given her more wildlife for inspiration.

Now, instead of being surrounded by 50-story buildings and concrete in New York, Mrs. Guirguis watches a family of deer and wild turkey on five acres on Methodist Road where she and her husband Adel are renovating a home.

Mrs. Guirguis said they moved to Mercer County a couple of months ago from Long Island, N.Y., to escape the “rat race,” which included a three-hour-a-day commute to her Manhattan office.

The Guirguises found their way to Greenville after visiting one of his colleagues, a professor at California University of Pennsylvania. Thinking they wanted to move to the country, too, the Guirguises checked out the area around California, but it was still too urban for them, she said.

So they drove north and Beaver County led to Lawrence County and then Mercer County and they eventually found their home, Mrs. Guirguis said.

The former senior editor for Vogue Knitting International and Family Circle Easy Knitting magazines, Mrs. Guirguis recently published her first book, “Knitted Critters For Kids to Wear,” through Random House. She’s working on her second book and travels to the city every month or so to meet with her publisher.

Her collection often sells out at Barneys department stores, something Mrs. Guirguis said helped put her company on the map.

Jean Adel designs are geared toward children because that’s what Mrs. Guirguis enjoys making, she said.

“I like the whimsy and color and freedom to have a sense of humor,” she said.

Mrs. Guirguis’ grandmother taught her to knit when she was about 7 years old and she still has the very first thing she made more than 40 years ago. It sits on a desk in her studio next to her collection of knitting needles and a frog-shaped tooth fairy pillow.

She also has baskets of yarn, baby blankets decorated with frogs, trains and sailboats and hats featuring almost every animal you can thing of. There’s a cat, cow, raccoon, pig, frog, mouse, duck and a koala.

“I knit a lot,” Mrs. Guirguis said. “It’s total full-time.”

And she’s working on some hats based on tasty treats. Photos, sketches and swatches show plans for a grape hat, a cupcake hat and a candy cane hat.

Her designs are for sale on the Web site www.JeanAdel.com, where knitters can also download patterns to make the creations themselves.

Mrs. Guirguis said she believes in American goods and workers, which is why Jean Adel creations are made with fibers spun in America and handmade by knitters across the country.